this is getting quite OT for MapServer, but what the heck --
On 3/1/07, percy <percyd at pdx.edu> wrote:
> I have been told directly by colleagues at both the Pennsylvania and
> Indiana geological surveys about "giving away" the data. Google seems to
> have feelers out for whenever new data are acquired by state agencies...
>> I agree, it's not sinister! But it would be nice to have access to those
> tiles :-)
but, you do have access to the data. I just checked the Arkansas site
that Paul provided below, and besides a bunch of innocuous factual
errors, they clearly point to the repository where all that data are
still available for anyone to use. Of course, the linked site
<http://www.rgis.cast.uark.edu/> is non-functional, so I guess I am
better off using Google Maps ;-)
Think of it this way... the US has a long history of offering publicly
collected data to anyone for no or minimal cost, and that anyone has
the freedom to do anything they want to with that data, including
selling it back to the US! I, for one, am very happy of this policy.
And, so are the mapping companies, for this is what they have made
their empires out of. The nice thing with Google is, they are giving
it back, just doing so on their own terms. Given that they are not
charging anything for it, at least I can live with those terms. If I
don't like those terms, the original data, the one that Google took,
are still there for me to take.
I see absolutely no problem with this. If there is any, I would love
to be educated.
>> Paul Ramsey wrote:
> > Puneet,
> >
> > Sorry, don't have any particular details, just lots of anecdotal reports
> > of public agencies giving their data to Google in order to achieve the
> > holy grail of seeing "their data in Google Earth".
> >
> > http://dailyheadlines.uark.edu/7507.htm> >
> > This is not uncommon, and it is not particularly sinister from a
> > "business" point of view, since the givers are receiving what they want
> > (access in a kewl tewl) and the givees are receiving what they want
> > (data they can add to Google Earth for free).
>> --
> David Percy
> Geospatial Data Manager
> Geology Department
> Portland State University
>http://gisgeek.pdx.edu> 503-725-3373
>
--
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
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